FCW Insider

Iraq soldier blogs

Soldiers' blogs are complicating military censorship in Iraq. The number of blogs has risen from a dozen to 200 or more in two years. The military has demoted one guardsman, whose site has since disappeared. Other troops have stopped blogging under pressure from superiors.

Earlier this month, we profiled Doug Roberts, a software engineer at the Energy Department's Los Alamos National Laboratory, who also ran a blog critical of lab leaders. After I read the story, I remember thinking that I was impressed the lab's leadership did not try to squash the blog. That likely would have backfired, but...

This is a new world for the military -- and everybody else. DOD has sought to put some controls on soldier bloggers, but it can be a very difficult issue.

The GAO director of information technology issues is leaving government after 16 years. On his way out the door, Dave Powner details how far govtech has come in the past two decades and flags the most critical issues he sees facing federal IT leaders.